MAIL TODAY COMMENT: The global aviation industry will have to get its act together in the wake of the MH17 horror

For people worried by reported jihadi threats to target airlines, things have got messier after the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 with a surface-to-air missile as it flew over a rebelheld area in Ukraine.

The loss of 298 lives, barely four months after another Malaysia Airlines flight with 239 people on board went missing, has raised questions about the safety of civil aviation.

But first a few facts.

Ukraine has called for an international investigation
and the US has offered to help. But it
remains unclear whether investigators will be
able to have unfettered access to the crash site
that is in rebel-held territory located a short distance
from the Russian frontier

Only eight other airliners have been mistakenly shot down by combat jets or with missiles since 1955, including a Russian passenger plane with 78 people on board that was brought down in Ukraine in 1983.

And though tragedies like those involving the two Malaysia Airlines flights generate huge media attention, air travel remains one of the safest modes of transportation.

According to the US National Transportation Safety Board, there were over 33,500 fatalities in road accidents in America in 2012 as against 449 in aviation accidents.

More than anything else, the shooting down of the Malaysian airliner in Ukraine underscores one key fact – airlines and air traffic controllers were following established rules and regulations of civil aviation, but the rules of war changed on the ground.

From the information emerging so far, it appears that a Russian-made Buk missile battery – which was manned by Russian personnel, according to some reports – targeted the civilian airliner after mistaking it for a military aircraft.

With reports suggesting pro-Russia separatists have started cleaning up the crash site, a transparent international probe is the need of the hour.

Ukraine has called for an international investigation and the US has offered to help.

But it remains unclear whether investigators will be able to have unfettered access to the crash site that is in rebel-held territory located a short distance from the Russian frontier.

Experts point out there are some 30,000 flights a day in the US alone but the number of accidents is minimal.

Flights passing over hotspots like Ukraine and the Middle East are a whole other matter.

One option is diverting flights away from such global hot spots but that could be difficult for a civil aviation sector used to measures to save every dollar.

Another is equipping all commercial airliners with measures to cope with missile attacks – a very expensive proposition – or improving the real-time tracking of civilian flights so that they can be alerted to avoid threats from the ground.

Clearly, the global aviation industry and regulators will have to get their act together.

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MAIL TODAY COMMENT: The global aviation industry will have to get its act together in the wake of the MH17 horror